4.5.1.4 mysql Server-Side Help

mysql> help search_string

If you provide an argument to the help
command, mysql uses it as a search string to
access server-side help from the contents of the MySQL Reference
Manual. The proper operation of this command requires that the
help tables in the mysql database be
initialized with help topic information (see
Section 5.1.8, “Server-Side Help”).

If there is no match for the search string, the search fails:

mysql> help me
Nothing found
Please try to run 'help contents' for a list of all accessible topics

mysql> help contents
You asked for help about help category: "Contents"
For more information, type 'help <item>', where <item> is one of the
following categories:
Account Management
Administration
Data Definition
Data Manipulation
Data Types
Functions
Functions and Modifiers for Use with GROUP BY
Geographic Features
Language Structure
Storage Engines
Stored Routines
Table Maintenance
Transactions
Triggers

mysql> help logs
Many help items for your request exist.
To make a more specific request, please type 'help <item>',
where <item> is one of the following topics:
SHOW
SHOW BINARY LOGS
SHOW ENGINE
SHOW LOGS

Use a topic as the search string to see the help entry for that
topic:

mysql> help show binary logs
Name: 'SHOW BINARY LOGS'
Description:
Syntax:
SHOW BINARY LOGS
SHOW MASTER LOGS
Lists the binary log files on the server. This statement is used as
part of the procedure described in [purge-binary-logs], that shows how
to determine which logs can be purged.
mysql> SHOW BINARY LOGS;
+---------------+-----------+
| Log_name | File_size |
+---------------+-----------+
| binlog.000015 | 724935 |
| binlog.000016 | 733481 |
+---------------+-----------+

The search string can contain the wildcard characters
“%” and
“_”. These have the same meaning
as for pattern-matching operations performed with the
LIKE operator. For example,
HELP rep% returns a list of topics that begin
with rep:

mysql> HELP rep%
Many help items for your request exist.
To make a more specific request, please type 'help <item>',
where <item> is one of the following
topics:
REPAIR TABLE
REPEAT FUNCTION
REPEAT LOOP
REPLACE
REPLACE FUNCTION